Blood clots in younger patients worry doctors
It had been three days since Jordan Hoey's COVID-19 fever had broken, and he was feeling like he was over it. Then blood appeared in a tissue.
It started as a red mist early on June 12 and, by the end of the day, the 29-year old Vancouver man was in an isolated COVID-19 treatment room at St. Paul's Hospital — with blood clots in his lungs.
“My admission was the quickest experience at a hospital I've ever had,” he said. “I wasn't aware of the complications that would come after I started to feel better. Blood clots were the last thing on my mind.”
Hoey tested positive for COVID-19 in late May, contracting it from his partner, a health care worker. He said he had no symptoms when he tested positive, but within three days had aches and pains. That developed into a fever that lasted 10 days.
“I felt like I was getting better, my fever was gone, then that turned into pain in my chest, then a redness in my cough,” he said.
A call to 811 led to the emergency room at St. Paul's Hospital, where his journey with pulmonary embolism began.
Hoey said he was discharged that day, after being prescribed blood thinners. He returned the following day as he was having searing pain in his chest when he breathed, and was given more painkillers.
The blood clots were cleared by August; however, symptoms have remained — like midday fatigue and shortness of breath.
“It's been a very slow six months,” said Hoey, who recently returned to his job as an engineering technologist with B.C. Hydro.
Dr. Anna Rahmani is co-director of the thrombosis clinic at St. Paul's Hospital.
She said Hoey's case was one of the first COVID-related blood
clotting cases to appear at St. Paul's by ambulance.
In the early days of the pandemic, blood clots had caused strokes and deaths, but only in people who were seriously ill and already in hospital. She said Hoey's case was the first clear event to appear in
a person with a moderate case of the disease.
Since then, her two-doctor clinic has seen more blood clot cases than in previous years.
Rahmani said any person who has tested COVID-19 positive should look out for unusual signs
related to blood clots — like one leg swelling, sudden fatigue or shortness of breath — and to stay hydrated. She also suggested people in self-isolation remain mobile in their space.
“Pay attention,” she said.